VICTORIA — People hoping to get a ride from Uber, Lyft or other ride-hailing services will have to wait until at least late 2019, if not longer, under NDP government legislation introduced Monday.

Transportation Minister Claire Trevena said her bill has set the stage for ride-hailing companies to start applying for licences once the Insurance Corp. of B.C. develops new specialized insurance in the “fall of 2019.”

But Trevena quickly sidestepped questions about whether that means ride-hailing vehicles will be on B.C. roads by the 2019 Christmas holidays, when taxis delays are at their worst. She offered only that she hoped they’d proceed “very quickly” while government officials admitted it could be as late as 2020.

“We’re working as quickly as we can,” said Trevena.

The schedule leaves the NDP at least two years behind the startup time it promised voters in the last election.

The legislation, if passed, would require a ride-hailing driver to obtain a Class 4 or commercial driver’s licence, which brings additional medical, security, criminal record and safety checks. Uber and Lyft had been pushing to allow drivers to use ordinary Class 5 licences, arguing their drivers are part-timers who don’t need the same class of licences as bus drivers.

“I think today raises another big question mark about the ability for ride-sharing to come to B.C.,” said Michael van Hemmen, an Uber Canada official.

However, a University of B.C. emeritus professor and transportation expert, Garland Chow, said B.C.’s system looks like it was designed by studying the successes and failures in other cities, and that the Class 4 licence in particular was a needed safety requirement for customers.

“In other words, I think they learned something from the experience in those other jurisdictions and therefore you aren’t going to need a whole bunch of Band-Aids the next year and the year after,” said Chow.

The new NDP legislation also proposes sweeping reforms to B.C.’s taxi industry.

“Everyone knows someone who is refused taxi pickup in downtown Vancouver because they were going to the North Shore or Port Coquitlam or Port Moody or somewhere,” said Trevena. “With the changes today, people will no longer be left stranded.”

However, her legislation stopped short of simply removing the municipal borders and licence caps that constrain taxi services. Instead, it proposes to strip municipal governments like the City of Vancouver of the power to set borders and caps, giving those responsibilities instead to the independent B.C. Passenger Transportation Board.

The board will be able to decide which taxi companies can operate under which borders, and whether ride-hailing companies can charge cheaper rates than traditional taxis or use so-called surge pricing that hike rates during peak times.

Mohan Kang, president of the B.C. Taxi Association, said it will take time to analyze the legislation and come up with a reaction.

Trevena defended ICBC when asked why it will take the Crown agency a year to develop ride-hailing insurance when B.C. has been debating the issue for years. She said ICBC has been preoccupied by an internal financial crisis and rate reforms.

However, government officials confirmed that insurance will be a version of the system the ride-sharing companies wanted: It will be charged per kilometre when a passenger is in a vehicle.

The B.C. Greens, whose support keeps the NDP in power, expressed disappointment at delays.

“That’s, to me, not good enough and we’ll be doing what we can to bring that timetable forward,” said Green Leader Andrew Weaver. “In our estimate, there is no reason why applications shouldn’t happen in the spring. You could actually have ride-hailing happening in the fall.”

“It’s a service that’s available everywhere in the world but is not coming to British Columbia any time soon because the NDP have decided they need to tightly regulate it,” said Wilkinson.

“What they’ve set up is a cumbersome government-run bureaucracy for something that should be determined by market demand. The customer should decide how much supply is required, the customer should have an influence on pricing. Instead what we have is a know-it-all NDP government.”

The NDP promised in the last election to protect the traditional taxi industry from job losses and disruption caused by ride-hailing services. Taxi owners and drivers rallied behind the New Democrats and helped the party win key ridings in Metro Vancouver area such as Surrey.

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